Parents file suit; son allegedly strip searched

Posted: Sunday, December 17, 2000

STEPHENVILLE (AP) - The parents of a 10-year-old boy who was allegedly strip searched by school employees looking for cigarettes have filed suit against the Stephenville school district claiming his constitutional rights were violated.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth by Roger and Teresa Salter Thursday seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the school district and three employees for a Sept. 29 search of the boy.

According to the lawsuit, the boy was strip searched by Gilbert Intermediate School teacher Kevin Ferguson at the request of resource officer Sgt. Ann Shell, who suspected the boy had cigarettes.

Another teacher, Nick Heupel, also witnessed the search.

The boy had been questioned and also patted down prior to the alleged strip search, the lawsuit says, and "nothing was found in either of the prior searches and nothing was found during the strip search."

The lawsuit contends the strip search was illegal, the employees were not properly trained and the district's rules were vague and "encourage the warrantless strip search of young children for no good reason."

After the search, the Slaters removed their son from Stephenville schools.

Superintendent Darrell G. Floyd said the school district had not been informed of the lawsuit.

"Since we have not been officially served, it would be inappropriate to comment," Floyd was quoted by the Abilene Reporter-News Saturday.

Floyd told the newspaper that the district's guidelines for searches comply with state law and such searches are not common.

The Slaters argue their son suffered from the loss of privacy, severe mental anguish and psychological damage from the search and claim individual apologies for the incident were "halfhearted" and "insufficient to undo the damage that was already done."

The Slaters also claim the school district did not discipline any of the employees for the strip search.

Among the damages sought in the lawsuit are compensation for loss of parental rights, the cost of providing an alternative education for their son and medical costs.

The boy's parents also seek unspecified punitive damages "in an amount sufficient to punish the defendants and to deter them from doing the same thing to someone else."

Curtis B. Stuckey, a Nacogdoches attorney representing the family, said the Slaters had offered to settle the suit for $140,000, but the school district did not respond to the offer by a Nov. 27 deadline.

A jury trial has been requested and the lawsuit court go to trial within a year, Stuckey said.